Post-election crisis in Côte d'Ivoire: The Gbonhi war

African Affairs

Volumn 110, Issue 440, 2011, Pages 457-468

  Banegas, Richard ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITÉ PARIS 1 PANTHÉON SORBONNE   (France)

^b Centre d'Etudes des Mondes Africains CEMAf   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL WAR; ELECTION; POLITICAL CONFLICT;

COTE D'IVOIRE;

EID: 79959840334     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adr025     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. See Ruth Marshall-Fratani, 'The war of "who is who": autochthony, nationalism, and citizenship in the Ivoirian crisis', African Studies Review 49, 2 (2006), pp. 9-43.
2. In nouchi, the argot of the Abidjan suburbs, gbonhi means a band, group, or gang.
3. See Richard Banégas, 'La politique du "gbonhi": mobilisations patriotiques, violence milicienne et carrières militantes en Côte d'Ivoire', Genèses 81 (December 2010), pp. 25-44.
4. See Richard Banégas, 'La France et l'ONU devant le "parlement" de Yopougon: paroles de Jeunes Patriotes et régimes de vérité à Abidjan', Politique africaine 104 (December 2006), pp. 141-58.
5. Among many other works, see the pamphlet of Mamadou Koulibaly, 'La guerre de la France contre la Côte d'Ivoire' (La Refondation, Abidjan, 2003).
6. See Reporters Sans Frontières, 'Côte d'Ivoire: il est temps de désarmer les esprits, les plumes et les micros', May 2005, (25 April 2011).
7. See Gnangadjomon Kone, Sociogenèse et dynamique du mouvement 'Jeune patriote' en Côte d'Ivoire (Université de Bouaké, published PhD thesis, 2010).
8. Aghi Bahi, 'La Sorbonne d'Abidjan: rêve de démocratie ou naissance d'un espace public?', Revue africaine de sociologie 7, 1 (2003), pp. 52-72.
9. See Human Rights Watch, 'The best school: student violence, impunity, and the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire' (Report, HRW, May 2008).
10. See Karel Arnault, 'Marching the nation: an essay on the mobility of belonging among militant youngsters in Côte d'Ivoire', Afrika Focus 21, 2 (2008), pp. 89-105.
11. Found in Côte d'Ivoire and neighbouring countries in the Sahel, grins are social institutions which are important to day-to-day popular sociability in Mandinka culture. In these informal spaces friends get together in the evening to drink tea. In the context of the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, the RDR (and other parties) have turned the grins into cells for grassroots mobilization.
12. This briefing will not consider in detail the violence and abuses committed by the Gbagbo regime's forces.
13. See instead, Scott Straus, '"It's sheer horror here": patterns of violence during the first four months of Côte d'Ivoire's post-electoral crisis', this issue, pp. 000-000.
14. Space does not permit a detailed discussion of this 'financial war'.
15. For more information, see Kako Nubupko, 'La crise ivoirienne: une guerre monétaire de l'UEMOA', forthcoming, Politique africaine 122 (June 2011).
16. Invisibility here refers to the strategy adopted by urban guerillas, which makes the movement elusive but also gives it a whole 'mystical' dimension, from the participation in the fighting of dozos, men reputed to be invincible on account of their magical powers.
17. See Thomas Basset, 'Dangerous pursuits: hunter associations (donzo ton) and national politics in Côte d'Ivoire', Africa 73, 1 (2003), pp. 1-30.
18. Christophe Boisbouvier, 'Côte d'Ivoire: les secrets d'une chute', Jeune Afrique 2621 (3-9 April 2011), p. 12.
19. See Richard Banégas, 'Génération guerriers: violence et subjectivation des jeunes miliciens en Côte d'Ivoire' in Nathalie Duclos (ed.), L'Adieu aux armes ? Trajectoires d'anciens combattants (Paris, Karthala, 2010), pp. 359-98.
20. An English version of this book is to about be published by Palgrave MacMillan.